Do schools prepare our children for employment?

There has been a long-standing argument, certainly for as long as I can recall, between the corporate and academic worlds. Businesses simply do not feel that the education provided students prepares them for work. I remember this same argument raging when I was at school, over 20 years ago, and of course, I never really understood what it was all about back then, but I do now. In fact, as an employer myself, I have seen the gap between business and education growing. The caliber of people looking for their first job, over the years, has in general dropped in my opinion. So what is going wrong? I do not believe it is a simple case that academics do not understand the business world, or are choosing to ignore the pleas from big business. I believe there are problems at a number of levels.

Firstly, I am going to put some of the blame at the feet of the parents. I have conducted a number of career-related seminars for graduating students in recent years and the one thing that has struck me is how few these days have any part-time work or weekend jobs. I would often ask the kids in the audience to provide me with a show of hands, and in the last three schools I spoke to, there was not one hand that went up. My father pushed me out to go and do a paper round when I was 11 years old, then I worked for a large catering company when I was 14 till I finished my education. I know for a fact that I got my first interview because I had a work record. I had a steady employment over a period of time, with a recognized company. The personnel manager back then told me my resume stood out because it did not simply include all the usual information about what after-school clubs or societies I was a member of. Why are so many kids not doing part-time work? In a competitive environment like today, if you are a school leaver you need all the help you can get so that your resume stands out. The resume needs to be able to say to a prospective employer that you have a work ethic and that you can handle responsibility. Having the standard OJT work on the resume frankly doesn’t cut it. It is something that the students are required to do and shows a lack of initiative.

Secondly, I do think that schools perhaps need to listen or consult with businesses a whole lot more than they do. I do have first-hand knowledge of schools that liaise with the business community, and I was happy conducting seminars and workshops with their students in the past. Indeed, I have actively looked for new hires from those schools as a result. There are also a number of courses that are offered that I know are not fully understood by the business community and in many cases, seem to lack any real merit or substance. Should the schools not be taking industry experts’ advise with respect to these courses?

Lastly, many businesses out there, especially call centers, seem to be experiencing very high attrition rates. One that I know of replaces its full compliment of staff virtually every four to six months. There is no business in the world that can compete on that basis. So why aren’t these businesses a little more proactive? Why don’t they get into the schools more and create partnerships that would be mutually beneficial? Perhaps, develop post-graduate courses with the schools so as to help them find the right people? You reap what you sow, after all.

Holding job fairs and getting involved in the occasional College Week is not enough. If you are a business tired of thumbing through homogeneous resumes, interviewing homogeneous school leavers, get involved; it’s your future as much as it is theirs. If you are a school looking for a competitive advantage, start talking to businesses in your region that matter, get them involved in helping you guide the students. If you are a student who wants to stand out, get out there, get a job, even if it’s pro bono, and make a future employer sit up and take notice. It might not get you the job, but it might just get you the interview and that’s more than half the battle.

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Bill Spindloe is a human resources consultant and trainer of Yapster e-Learning. E-mail him at [email protected].